Reef Aquarium Tattoos: show us your salty Ink (continuously updated)

There is no questioning the huge popularity of reef aquariums. With upward of one million saltwater aquariums in the U.S. alone, it’s no surprise to see some diehard reefers taking reefing culture to a permanent level, on their skin. We’ve seen a handful of ocean related tattoos before: Rich Ross has an assembly of Cephalopods rounds his massive bicep, we’ve spotted a guy with a brittle star around his calf and there’s plenty of seahorses, sharks and lionfish to go around. I thought I was hardcore with my massive tribute to an octocoral polyp but so far Chris Bueschel (aka Reefkoi) has a tat that takes the cake.

Reefkoi’s three quarter wraparound half sleeve is loaded with juicy, colorful corals, many of which are recognizable down to the species level in some examples. Guarding over his reef scene, Reefkoi even has a cyberpunk reef fish making sure no one looks at the reef scene too hard. There’s got to be some more reefing tattoos out there and we’d love it if you would send us examples of your bodily reefing tribute to this lifestyle we call reefing. Send your links and images or reef or ocean tattoos to contest at reefbuilders dot com so we can share them with the world. This isn’t officially a contest but if we get a lot of great entries we may decide to do something with. Follow the break for more pics of Reefkoi’s reef ink and we look forward to seeing your own reefing tattoo submissions.

Update: we’re already throwing up the submission with the previous images after the break.

Here is a cracked-out full leg reef scene. How many creatures do you recognize?

This octopus Tattoo from Richard Rendos is really special because it inserts an octopus into the style elements of a traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e print, the most recognizable to reefers being the Great Wave. I bet this tattoo looks wicked in real life.

Jake Adams has been an avid marine aquarist since the mid 90s and has worked in the retail side of the marine aquarium trade for more than ten years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and has been the managing editor of ReefBuilders.com since 2008. Jake is interested in every facet of the marine aquarium hobby from the concepts to the technology, rare fish to exotic corals, and his interests are well documented through a very prolific career of speaking to reef clubs and marine aquarium events, and writing articles for aquarium publications across the globe. His primary interest is in corals which Jake pursues in the aquarium hobby as well as diving the coral reefs of the world.